If you think a non-racist explanation for distributing “White Lives Matter” flyers is possible, a Lewiston, N.Y., resident is about to prove you right.
A day after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation about the flyers placed in locals’ driveways, Scott Lacy is explaining why he distributed documents about Black-on-white crime and white supremacy in the first place.
“The purpose of these flyers is to raise awareness with whites about the plight our people face in this country,” Lacy, new to the town, told WKBW Sunday, March 26. “I consider myself a racist but not because I believe in hatred towards anybody else. It’s because I love my own people.”
Heeding a friend’s suggestion, Lacy distributed the flyers either late Wednesday, March 22, or early Thursday, March 23, and maintained all the information is factual.
“There was crime statistics based on race which is part of the FBI database,” he said. “It’s not something fabricated out of the blue, you know?”
Local police said 10 to 20 flyers encased in plastic bags were discovered in residents’ driveways, with the pouches containing different versions of the papers, including one about illegal immigration. The statistics on the flyer are false and reminiscent of what President Trump retweeted in 2015.
“This gave me the impression they were putting other people down,” Blair Hoplight, one of the people who received the flyer, told WKBW. “That doesn’t work. It’s not going to make our country any better.”
“As a New Yorker, I was disgusted and offended by the flyers promoting a white nationalist group in Lewiston,” Cuomo said in a statement to the news station. “These messages contradict all that we stand for as New Yorkers.”
Lacy said he has received positive feedback on the flyers and will continue to distribute them.
